The term "cyberpunk" is derived from:

• "cyber"--pertaining to information systems like those in a computer
• "punk"--referring to fractious youth

Together the two elements suggest an artificial human with torn clothes and spiky hair.

Think Darryl Hannah as Pris in Blade Runner.

Cyberpunk depicts a society alienated from nature and organized along corporate rather than tribal, familial, or national lines.

The setting is often an city of dreadful night where street smarts provide the ethic in a world modeled on the contemporary inner city--the rock scene, the drug scene, and hackers' dreams of glory.